A key part of any information security strategy is disposing of data once it's no longer needed. Failure to do so can lead to serious breaches of data-protection and privacy policies, compliance problems and added costs.
When it comes to selecting ways to destroy data, organizations have a short menu. There are basically three options: overwriting, which is covering up old data with information; degaussing, which erases the magnetic field of the storage media; and physical destruction, which employs techniques such as disk shredding. Each of these techniques has benefits and drawbacks, experts say.